PRO FOOTBALL

PRO FOOTBALL; Jets Waste No Time Breaking A Sweat

By GERALD ESKENAZI,

Published: July 25, 1994

HEMPSTEAD, L.I., July 24—
There hasn't been a Jets camp opener like this weekend's since, well, maybe back when they were called the Titans.

The veterans circled the rookies when it was over today, everyone sweating from the summer heat, but chanting and laughing. Coaches call the drill "up's and downs," but "torture" is more accurately descriptive.

The rookies ran in place, chanted and then threw themselves face down onto the grass. Up they came, everyone doing a mantra like summer cultists, and down they went. Half a dozen times. Then they ran. When it was over, they were high-fived by the old-timers, everyone screaming, "Jets '94!" Even Hess Joins In

"I've never seen that in all the years I've been here," said Kyle Clifton, the 11th-year middle linebacker.

Nor had he seen the team's usually reticent owner, Leon Hess, deliver such a rousing pep talk Saturday night. Hess told the players they had the ability to make the playoffs, that in new coach Pete Carroll and in the quality of the personnel, there was a real chance at post-season play. Hess also said that he liked the camaraderie among coaches and players that Carroll was instilling.

And to give some perspective to their first evening together, the club's longtime orthopedist, James Nicholas, delivered a history lesson to the players. He explained how the Jets were a guiding force in the merger of the N.F.L. and A.F.L. He became their physician in their first season of 1960, when they were called the Titans. He now is the medical staff chairman.

Carroll has promised a tougher camp. It already is. The opening day was longer, harder and yet smoother than past seasons.

"We want to establish consistency right away," he said today of his hopes for the 8-8 team he inherited. "If there's one word, it's consistency. We've got to get as good as we can as soon as we can."

Asked about the length of practice, he spoke plainly: "We won't attempt to raise morale by shortening practice. If it's tougher, it's tougher."

It's tougher. Also more interesting.

The Jets, in fact, have some of the more intriguing minidramas in the N.F.L.

Take the soccer kicker. On the sidelines, players halted their jawing, or raised themselves after being hunched over from fatigue, when Tony Meola was about to attempt to kick a field goal. This usually is a part of the day that has little interest for most of the players. But they watched Meola, America's World Cup goalie, when he started drilling. There It Goes!

One of his boots traveled about 30 yards wide. But another seemed to go on forever after bisecting the uprights. The kicks all had distance. Spins varied, as did direction.

The Jets want to preserve the legs of the 38-year-old Nick Lowery, history's most accurate place-kicker, so they hope to use Meola's launches for kickoffs while training him to boot field goals.

As for those misses today, Brad Seely, the new special teams' coach, said he wasn't worried.

"He's not so much got a kicker's mentality as an athlete's mentality," Seely said. "Those misses? He can say, 'Hey, I did it. I was in the World Cup.' Right now we've got bad snappers and bad holders. What the heck's the Patriots to him after he played Brazil?"

On another part of the field, Marvin Jones was eavesdropping. Jones hadn't suited up since Game 9 last year, when he suffered a serious hip injury that required months of virtual bed-rest. Now, the club's top draft pick of 1993 -- the fourth player taken over all -- was back.

He is not the starting middle linebacker. Not yet. But the Jets have plans for him. And so he alternates with Clifton. But unlike other players who are not in the action and go to the sidelines, Jones is in the defensive huddle. He listens to what Clifton says.

Clifton understands. The soft-spoken Texan said that when a team picks a No. 1 draft pick at your position, "you know that one day he'll take your place."

"If you don't see it coming, you make it harder for yourself," he said. "You could drive yourself crazy and hurt the team."

Jones can be a force, a big-play performer the Jets haven't boasted lately. EXTRA POINTS

Three players, all of whom had surgery last year, will not be doing the two-a-days, which start Monday: MARVIN JONES (hip), JEFF LAGEMAN (shoulder) and PAT CHAFFEY (knee). DWAYNE WHITE, the 315-pound guard, is practicing even though he hurt his left knee when he was hit by a taxi cab last week while riding his bike. . . . BOOMER ESIASON's arm strength is fine, said Coach PETE CARROLL. "It was a case of discipline in his throwing that made it look as if he had lost some last year," Carroll said.

Photo: When Tony Meola kicked, his Jets teammates stopped to watch the soccer hero during practice yesterday. (Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)